Hear that lonesome whistle blow
No direction to be known
In a senile revelry
A tearful gaze turns away
Emoting cold and grey
Scented eunuchs
Clothe our wretchedness

Looking back at some dead world
That looks so new
Offices and fountains that they named for you
So ungrateful to the who's and what's-his-face
Terrorist confections
Look so out of place

Looking back at some dead world
That looks so new
Looking back at some dead world
That looks so new
Looking back at some dead world
That looks so new
Looking back at some dead world
That looks so new
Looking back at some dead world
That looks so new

General CommentIt's a secret track? It was just on the album when I heard it....
Anyway, this has got to be my favourite Beck song at the moment... the lyrics are awesome- him at his most random but also his most beautiful `looking back at some dead world that looks so new` is genious....

General Commentaside from this song rocking very hard. and having a really nice ending to it (one of my favorites in fact as far as album closers go). i warn you ahead of time, i'm gonna ramble on here a little bit.

to me this song is about change. things changing with the world at large. < and given when this came out imo the world at large WAS changing a great deal at that time (in about every way you can think of). < in fact so much so that it would be hard for someone without a first hand knowledge of the times getting any real gasp of it (or so it seems anyway. sure you could say that's always the case but i'm not sure. i mean in some ways yes that is true but this seems a little different than that, again to me)

but anyway i promise i'm going somewhere with this (if you bare with me. haha).
i felt a connection to this song at the time and even do now. (but right now it's a more been there and done that vibe now. it's gone, it's history, ya know. that type of feeling) my feelings towards it have changed (but not in the way it does with most songs. for me i always read this song as about being about what i got from it then. and i have never gotten another handle on it. so for me it reads as an unchangeable document, with strong ties to the times in which it was written, or put together rather (i don't really mean this in a bad way however).

so to me this song is not as open to interpretation as most beck songs are. < of course that's just me and my feelings (again formed long ago and never changed as of yet). i'm sure somebody else could find another interpretation in there somewhere and also hearing it much later on would also maybe aid in that to. < not that it would have to be a must but it might would help.

anyway this song to me overall tells of a change and a big one on a world scale, even (the vibe given off even more so than the lyrics. and most of the lyrics as well. but it's big. moving around. fast then slow. chaos then chilled. old then new) changes.

much like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. or maybe more like bread turning into toast. this change to me comes across as something seen by the person telling the story as being a permanent one. if not a wanted one. either way it is coming or has already came recently or is in the middle of coming and that's that. gonna have to make due with it. it's somber the change isn't really seen as a good one by the storyteller. something is dead and now everything looks so new. < the storyteller here tells of these things in a very matter of fact way to, it seems (like a news anchor man might would). so it is kind of hard to read weather or not this is viewed as being a good thing or not (in the eyes of the narrator or i suppose maybe even the listener? it's an almost impartial view of the events is a vibe i take from it. it does lean a little towards being seen as a sad thing more so than a good thing tho, for sure) but still the ending has a cold feeling to it. a sorta "well that's too bad and i'm not going to act like i'm happy about it either but what can i do about it" type of vibe going on. and we fade to black. to be continued...

whereas before this ladder half of the song takes place it's a very hectic song (in vibe but still similar so not out of place at all imo. everything here works together even tho i've heard it's a clusterf*ck of songs pieced together. < had i not heard about that i would not have guessed it. however this could also explain the changes going on in it and the coldness it has in places as well. but it for sure works for the song. the piecework also seems to make me feel this song is one thing really strongly more than i could see it any other way as well. at times while theres no doubt a lot of beck songs are very open there have been ones more closed and working towards one thing to the point of it being noticeable and to me this is one. even if not on purpose. if i were to bust out a pie chart it would go into that subsection of the chart. < however if open or closed were the only 2 choices. there would be much more pie on the open part than the closed part of that chart. so this isn't an a typical moment for him given that.

BUT for some reason given all the tempo shifts, cut & paste, and other things going on here that i can't put a good word on. this is (if there was such a thing; which there isn't) about as good a song as any to be one song that would sum up beck (it is a darn near impossible thing, no doubt about that. and near impossible for a lot of artists much less him. and it would not to do the trick but nothing else would either) but anyway it's on that list, no doubt about that. if i could only pick one song to sum it all up theres a good chance i may pick this. it's a lot of bang for the buck for one thing (and if you only get one choice. that IS important). theres some familiar lyrics and tunes in here. theres an intro, theres an ending, and a middle. some sound effects. all kinds of things going on. i'm not saying it would sum it all up because it wouldn't but nothing really would what i am saying is it's on the list for such a question like that. and maybe would top it, i'm not sure. only time will tell, eh.

but back to the song. it's controlled but out of control < not just how this was put together i feel but also another theme or vibe i get from the song. running out of control up until the end where things slow a large amount and perhaps even brought about because of the chaos that had taken place before hand) a cold unseen hand coming in to clean up the place and make it brand new looking again. putting everything back into it's place. cleaning up the mess (or rather something that was seen as a mess by the one who cleaned it up to make it look all new again.) and yet something is very wrong. it's a cold blue world. as hectic and messy as it was before you get the feeling it was better for it. and that the baby was throw out with the bathwater. and all those other metaphors of a similar ink.

and one more thing. even tho i didn't think i could find another interpretation for it. after having sat on this one for quite a long time in posting this. i have thought of other interpretations as well.

like i could see this as being something to where one would find ones self out party and having a great time but passing out and waking up the morning after all of that and everything looking new to them. < maybe a reacurring moment for the person as well. i say that cause again i don't get a "happy" vibe. so.

or just coming to some kind of epiphany in your life. but again the reaction doesn't seem quite right there for that. not that everybody's would be the same however, sure.

General CommentGreat sound to this song, but I frequently don't care for Beck's lyrics, and this is one of those examples. I don't like the imagery that his word salad evokes -- dead world, rejoice their doom, nauseous heart, derelict boulevards, lonesome whistle, senile revery, tearful gaze, cold and grey, wretchedness, terrorist confections.

I don't know what he's talking about (probably nothing in particuar, just a lot of word combinations that sounded good to him), but it gives me a bad vibe.